“HAHAHAH OOPS, all your favorite characters aren’t going to be in this one. We’re just going to throw them out the window and WATCH THEM FALL AND LAUGH AND TAKE PICTURES while we shove some new fellows in your way!!”

Mhm, yeah, that’s every bookworms’ favorite situation. AND THAT’S WHAT MY BRAIN WAS SCREAMING AT ME. SCREAMING! LIKE THIS! WHICH IS RUDE! INVASIVE! TERRIFYING! Thank the books above that everything my brain tells me is a lie.

Yes, that’s it. I’ve disintegrated into a puddle of shame. RIP ME.

A Small Note™ → If you live under a rock (#recommended, it’s cozy), you might not know that Gemina is the sequel to Illuminae. In which case, you probably haven’t read Illuminae at all which further means that you HAVE NO BUSINESS HERE, YOU SNEAKY HUMAN. So saunter over here and don’t come back until you’ve finished the book and have had emotional therapy. Don’t be scared, we all need it in this fandom. We’re freaks and we’re delusional but we’re also great.

synopsis

Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.

The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminae continues on board the Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of the BeiTech assault.

Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy’s most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.

When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station’s wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.

But relax. They’ve totally got this. They hope.

Once again told through a compelling dossier of emails, IMs, classified files, transcripts, and schematics, Gemina raises the stakes of the Illuminae Files, hurling readers into an enthralling new story that will leave them breathless.

my thoughts

“It’s not about what I say, right? It’s what I do that matters here.”

Gemina took me a while to get into because YEAH Kady and Ezra were gone. Coping is hard. But once I got used to it, I was all in. The new cast shined just as bright as the last one, and they grabbed and pulled and RIPPED MY BOOKISH HEART TO SHREDS just as much. I loved how character-driven Gemina was and I can’t help but drool over the amount of thought and effort that went into literally everything. The result was a smoothly written, effortlessly brilliant, and great smelling novel. Also a freaking EMOTIONALLY GUTTING ONE, but whatever. WHATEVER !!!

what I liked:

The characters

Oh oops

I meant Nik

Nik was awesome

ALSO black leather

Black leather on Nik

PROPERLY DEVELOPED WORLD EXPANSION !!!

Intense #stabstabstab Kristoff plot

Unpredictable moments where the book decided to slAP ME IN THE FACE

I could throw it at a wall with a reasonable excuse

:)) all good here

THE HUMOR THOUGH

what I didn’t like:

The authors played with my emotions because they freaking COULD

THAT IS NASTY

More transcripts and less creativity BUT more sass

There were some Russian names that wouldn’t actually exist in Russia????

Hahahaha what was that cliffhanger

W H A T

It’s official, now, mate. I don’t want to murder sci-fi anymore.

dirty talk

Language: Tons of “censored” profanity I could accidentally fall into and drown in. All The Bad Words™ were blacked out, but what they were wasn’t a mystery. Heh heh. Un-blacked-out words include 30 uses of G—d—n and h—l and 13 uses of d—n. SHUT UP AND GROW A VOCABULARY

Violence: Alien-like creatures roam and are fairy disgusting. Frequent Fights® and so on and so forth.

Sensuality: Lots of innuendo and suggestive conversations. A few kisses and some making out because teenagers our characters are.

Substances: A notorious criminal family is a fan of the dust trade which becomes a pretty prominent part of the story.

nothing but the best

don’t be a jerk.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication (word piracy!! argh!!) of this material without express and written permission from this Marie Herself™ is strictly prohibited. Be nice and stay original or be smashed by multiple, large bookcases.